Myth of the TV detector van?

They are an image to be feared, parked in the street with the mysterious power
to automatically detect who is watching television illegally and issue hefty
fines.

Could the TV licence detector van be a myth?Photo: Alamy

By Claire Carter

7:30AM BST 27 Sep 2013

But now it appears the fabled TV detector vans, striking fear into students and homeowners who may consider evading the licence fee, could be nothing but a myth.

A leaked internal document from the BBC gives a detailed breakdown of the state of licence fee payments and the number of people who evade the charge – but fails to make any mention of the detector vans.

While documenting the number of officers to collect the £145.50 fee increased to 334 this summer, an 18 page memo from the TV Licensing's Executive Management Forum obtained by the Radio Times makes no mention of the vans finding those who don’t pay.

The snapshot financial assessment also indicates the number of non-payers has increased, with evasion at 5.8 per cent for August compared to 5.2 per cent the year before.

But a spokeswoman for TV licensing said the vans are not a fabrication to scare people into paying, and that the number of those evading the fee was not accurate.